Professor Kelly-Anne Phillips is a Consultant Medical Oncologist, Co-Lead of Breast Medical Oncology and a Senior Strategic Research Leader at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. She is among the top 2% of most cited scientists in her field internationally and is an NHMRC Leadership Fellow, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, and an Honorary Professorial Fellow of The University of Melbourne. She is committed to reducing the burden of breast cancer for women and their families by advancing and implementing knowledge in breast cancer risk assessment, prevention and treatment. She is recognised internationally as an expert in breast cancer genetics and precision prevention and has received awards for excellence in cancer prevention, women’s health and clinical trials research.

Professor Phillips was the European and Australian Chair of the POEMS study that showed the effectiveness of using the drug goserelin to minimise chemotherapy-induced menopause and infertility. She was national lead on the OlympiA study which demonstrated that olaparib improves survival for women with breast cancer and inherited abnormalities in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. She also chaired studies in Europe and Australia that elucidated the impact of anti-hormone treatments for breast cancer on cognitive function. She has led the kConFab Follow-Up Study since 2001, resulting in longitudinal data from over 6,000 participants which is used in global collaborations to better understand how to reduce breast cancer risk.

Professor Phillips has pioneered the development of digital health and clinical services for precision breast cancer prevention in Australia. She established the first Breast and Ovarian Cancer Risk Management Clinic. She led the multidisciplinary development of iPrevent, an online tool to help women understand their personal breast cancer risk and to act on it. iPrevent was awarded an Australian innovation patent, is an RACGP accepted clinical resource, and is recommended by Cancer Australia and BreastScreen. She leads health services research aimed at increasing use of preventive medications in women at increased risk. She recently founded the novel Preventing Cancer with Medications (PCMed) Telehealth Service at Peter Mac which assists women to make informed decisions about taking medications that halve breast cancer risk.

Professor Phillips chaired the Prevention Group of the 2024 Lancet Breast Cancer Commission. She is an Associate Editor of the US Journal of the National Cancer Institute. She has served on international and national evidence-based guideline committees and research taskforces. She was senior author on the paradigm-changing 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology Research Statement that highlighted the need to assess ovarian toxicity in clinical trials of new anti-cancer agents.

Professor Phillips is an outcome-oriented clinician-scientist, committed to ensuring high quality research findings are translated into policy and clinical practice. Her research and advocacy have been instrumental in improving equity of access to breast cancer prevention agents and treatments that improve outcomes for Australian women.